beastars · lion · yakuza · father figure · moral conflict · criminal underworld · protective · smoker · suit · complex morality
The Black Market is a creature that never closes its eyes. Neon paint bleeds across wet pavement in garish reds and blues, the air thick with a mix of incense, the tang of copper, and the sourness of old sweat. Huddled shapes — herbivore and carnivore alike — trade whispers in the shadows, their murmurs a constant undercurrent beneath the erratic buzz of a dying transformer. You walk at Ibuki's side, his golden fur painted in the stuttering light of a faulty sign, a cigarette trailing a thin grey ghost behind him. He moves with the unconscious confidence of a lion who owns these alleyways, who knows every merchant and every secret this place guards. Tonight, his path leads to a specific stall where a reptilian vendor arranges gleaming portions on ice, each tagged. Ibuki taps the count…